Red Wings clinch Stanley Cup

PITTSBURGH ” Hockeytown is home to the Stanley Cup ” again.

Using a little Motown magic on the road, the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in 11 seasons Wednesday night with a 3-2 victory over the Pitts­burgh Penguins in Game 6 of the Finals.

The celebration came two nights later than expected. The Penguins forced the series back to Pennsylvania by tying Game 5 with 34.3 seconds left in regulation and winning it shortly before 1 a.m. in Detroit on Petr Sykora’s power-play goal in triple overtime.

---

---

Undeterred, the Red Wings hit the road and wrapped up their fourth straight series on the road in these play­offs. Detroit is third in NHL history with 11 Stanley Cup titles, trailing fellow Original Six clubs Montreal and Toronto.

Just like in Game 5, things got a little dicey for the Red Wings, who allowed Marian Hossa’s power-play goal with 1:27 remaining that got the Penguins to 3-2. Pittsburgh had already pulled Game 5 hero Marc-Andre Fleury to create a 6-on-4 skating edge.

---

---

With the final seconds ticking down, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby put a backhander on goal that Hossa just missed with a tip at the right post.

It set off a pile-on celebration behind the Detroit net for the Red Wings, as the disappointed fans in Mellon Arena saluted their club once more with a chant of “Let’s Go Pens!”

In the best night for Swedish hockey since the national squad won the gold medal at the 2006 Turin Olympics, defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom became the first European captain of a Stanley Cup champion, and Henrik Zetterberg, who had a goal and assist in the Cup clincher, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

His goal 7:36 into the third period, that was pushed in by the backside of Fleury, extended the Red Wings’ lead to 3- 1. He tied teammate and countryman Johan Franzen for the playoff lead with 13 goals, and matched Crosby for the postseason scoring crown with 27 points.

Lidstrom is one of five players to be with the Red Wings for their four most recent titles (1997, 1998, 2002, 2008).

Crosby came close in his third NHL season to adding a Stanley Cup to his resume that already includes a scoring crown and a league MVP award.

Brian Rafalski gave Detroit a 1-0 lead in the first period and Valtteri Filppula dou­bled it in the second. Chris Osgood made 20 saves and improved to 14- 4 in the playoffs after taking over for No. 1 goalie Dominik Hasek in the first round of the playoffs. Osgood allowed only 30 goals in 19 games.

Detroit earned its final two victories of the championship series in Pittsburgh, where the Penguins won their first nine postseason games. Until the Red Wings came to town, the Penguins hadn’t lost at home since February.

Fleury, brilliant in making 55 saves Monday night in Pittsburgh’s thrilling 4- 3 win in triple overtime, couldn’t repeat that performance. Filppula’s rebound goal 8: 07 into the second period was cer­tainly one he’d like to have back.

Mikael Samuelsson faked a shot as he crept toward the right circle and then let go a drive that Fleury blocked with the stick. The rebound came right back out in front to Filppula, who didn’t get much on his shot but managed to squeeze the puck between Fleury’s pads to make it 2­0.

The “white- out” clad crowd tried to muster up a “Let’s Go Pens!” chant, but the stifling Red Wings defense took every bit as much out of the fans as it did the Penguins’ usually potent offense.

Pittsburgh shots were blocked, passing lanes were closed off, and the puck seemed to be constantly on the sticks of the Red Wings. That is until an interfer­ence call was made against Pavel Dat­syuk, who protested the penalty all the way to the box and then while inside.

That set up the goal the Penguins have been waiting for all season, the one from NHL MVP finalist Evgeni Malkin, who hadn’t scored since the clinching game of the Eastern Conference finals.

Malkin, coming off a season in which he had 47 goals and 106 points, had been completely pointless until Petr Sykora’s scored the overtime goal off his pass to win Game 5. This time, Crosby found him in the left circle with a cross-ice feed, and Malkin ripped a shot between Osgood’s pass to cut the deficit in half at 15:26.

Rafalski struck first just 5: 03 into the game, giving the Red Wings the critical 1­0 lead ” an advantage that proved to be the precursor of the winning team in all but one game of the series.